A New Year
by Phoenixess
Summary: James is in his 5th year just after the summer, will this be the year he wins Lily's heart?
1. Chapter 1

On September 1st Kings Cross was always full of strange people carrying owls in cages and funny trunks the conductor noticed after many years of working at the station. Although he never approached these people- that would be rude – he always wondered what exactly it was they were doing and what was so great happening between platforms 9 and 10. The conductor was dismissing these thoughts and climbing aboard his next train when he bumped into one of those funny people. This particular person had black hair that looked like it had never met a brush in its life; their glasses had dropped revealing their brown eyes.

James Potter had been running late when his glasses had slipped down and he ran into the conductor. "Sorry Sir." James muttered before continuing to his destination. When he approached the platforms 9 and 10 James Potter did a thing most unexpected. Instead of going to either one platform or the other James gave a quick glance around and ran straight at the pillar between the two, and if you thought this was strange what came next was even stranger; instead of crashing into the wall like one normally would James disappeared straight through it!

On the other side of the wall James arrived on another platform with a scarlet train waiting for boarding, families scattered everywhere wishing their goodbyes, a sign hung over the whole scene that read 'Platform 9 ¾"

On the train James made his way through the crowds of people nodding 'hello' as he went. He had made it half way through the train when he must have found what he was looking for because he stopped outside a compartment. The door flew open and a tall muscular figure with black hair effortlessly flicked around their face and grey eyes. Appeared. The smile on this new characters face grew when it saw James, "Sirius!" James exclaimed as he hi-fived the new character now named Sirius. "James!" Sirius' hand met James in the hi-five. The two of them stepped through the compartment door where two other boys lay inside reclined on the seats. One was tall with hair that was not yet brown and almost too dark for blonde, the other was short and lumpy and appeared to be out of place amongst the other boys. "Remus, Peter!" James beamed at his too friends, it had been a long summer and he was eager to catch up on lost valuable pranking time.

They boys settled, Remus had made prefect this year so he excused himself early and went to attend to those duties and Peter had gone on a trolley hunt, which just left the James and Sirius alone in the compartment, "Have you seen her yet" Sirius asked James. James just shook his head "No I was late to the train and didn't see her on my way here, do you think she's avoiding me?" James had a crush on a girl in their year with dark red hair and the greenest eyes you had ever seen. Lily Evans (the girl of James' affection) was also the top of every class, meaning she despised and often didn't have time for people like James who concentrated themselves more on disrupting class than learning from it. These types of feelings were beyond Sirius who just saw girls as a way to keep him amused and no more, but was kind of jealous of James having these feelings- even if it did drive him crazy hearing about it.

Remus waltzed back into the carriage. "Five minutes until we get to Hogwarts, you two might want two change." He said before walking before leaving them to themselves.


	2. Chapter 2

On the platform things went as usual, James took every opportunity he could to try and catch a glimpse of Lily, Hagrid rounded up the first years and took them out on the boats, Remus made sure no one was hurt while getting off of the train before the four of them all piled into a carriage together, which as per usual seemed to be pulling itself.

The sorting ceremony had finished and an assorted group of scared faces merged themselves into the four long tables. The welcome feast was always Lily's favourite of the year; there were always new things to talk about. "How was your summer?" Lily asked turning to her friend Emmeline Vance.  
"It's been better," Emmeline shrugged her wild brown hair bobbing with her shoulders. "With the amount of homework I was given I think I may as well not left school. How was yours?" Lily laughed as she started to pile her plate with food, the food at Hogwarts was always too good to only have a little. "Well Tunie still hates me, and like you said I was swamped with Homework, McGonagall wanted 10 inches on human metamorphosis."  
"So the muggle is still giving you trouble?" Lily didn't much like people calling her sister a muggle, there was something about it that just seemed to down grading, but Lily kept her mouth shut. "James is looking at you again." Emmeline whispered into Lily's ear. "I wish he would just give it a rest!" Lily stated. She was getting sick of him always looking at her and asking her out, when would he get it that she wasn't going to say yes? The talking eventually stopped as they dispatched of the food on their plates.

Eventually the feast was over and Lily and Emmeline made their way their way to the common room making sure they bumped into Remus Lupin along the way, James would be there and that thought annoyed her, but she need the new password to the common rooms and Remus as prefect had exactly that. "Hey Lily, what do you want." Lily smiled, she liked Remus he was the only one of James and Sirius' 'Marauders' that she actually liked. "Do you have the new password yet?" Emmeline answered for Lily. "Sure, it's _Animi_."  
"Thanks Remus." Lily smiled at him and watched James' face before she and Emmeline bounded off to the Common room.

The Gryffindor common room was a room of red and scarlet; true to the houses colours. Assorted couches and arm chairs were spread through out it along with tables that one can presume were for studying, but seemed to be abandoned at this point. There were two staircases, one that led to the boy's dormitories and another for the girls. Lily normally stayed up late on the first night back- everyone did- but for this year she decided that she would prefer to spend time up in her dormitory. Lily's dormitory had four beds inside; one for Emmeline, Alice, Sage and herself. Being early the room was completely empty, Lily's trunk was placed neatly next to her four-poster bed. Digging inside of her trunk Lily found her pyjamas and then climbed in to bed. When she closed her eyes she found herself not thinking of spells like normal, but of James Potter of all people. This year was going to be interesting. She thought as the abyss claimed her mind.


End file.
